Di Bonaventure v. Home Lines, Inc.

536 F. Supp. 100, 1982 A.M.C. 1507, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13037
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 8, 1982
DocketCiv. A. 81-1886
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 536 F. Supp. 100 (Di Bonaventure v. Home Lines, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Di Bonaventure v. Home Lines, Inc., 536 F. Supp. 100, 1982 A.M.C. 1507, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13037 (E.D. Pa. 1982).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

WEINER, District Judge.

This is a diversity jurisdiction action for damages arising out of injuries allegedly sustained by plaintiff-wife while a passenger aboard the SS Oceanic. Trial on the plaintiffs’ claims of negligence on the part of all defendants except Sergio Lazzaro, M.D. (Dr. Lazzaro) in allegedly causing plaintiff-wife to fall and thereby injure herself was held before this court, sitting with a jury, and resulted in a verdict and judgment for the defendants. Presently before the court is the motion of the defendant Dr. Lazzaro to dismiss for lack of in personam jurisdiction and improper service. For the reasons which follow the motion is granted. Also before the court is the motion of the other defendants to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. That motion is granted as well.

I

Dr. Lazzaro is a resident and domiciliary of Italy and is not a citizen, resident or domiciliary of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lazzaro sailed aboard the SS Oceanic as ship’s surgeon on the voyage on which plaintiff-wife was allegedly injured. After she fell and injured herself the doctor provided diagnos *102 tie and other medical services to the plaintiff-wife while aboard ship. The ship sailed from and returned to New York and never entered Pennsylvania waters. At no relevant time was Dr. Lazzaro in Pennsylvania. Service upon Dr. Lazzaro is asserted by plaintiff to have been made pursuant to Rule 4(d)(1) and (7) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and 42 Pa.C.S.A. 5323, but the validity of that alleged service has been challenged. Though the court has serious doubts regarding whether service meeting the requirements of the law has in fact been made upon Dr. Lazzaro, we need not directly address that question since, even assuming arguendo that valid service has been effectuated, this court nonetheless lacks personal jurisdiction over the doctor, as explained below.

Defendant Home Lines, Inc. was and is a foreign corporation with its principal place of business in Greece. Defendant Home Lines Cruises, Inc. is a New York corporation with its principal place of business in New York, and acts as general agent for Home Lines, Inc. in the United States. These two defendants have distributed in Pennsylvania an advertising brochure describing their cruises and including the following statement: “Medical Service: The Oceanic carries qualified physicians and nurses.”

II

Plaintiffs assert that Dr. Lazzaro was an employee of the defendant Home Lines, Inc., owner of the S.S. Oceanic, and that the medical services of the ship were advertised in travel brochures distributed in Pennsylvania. Hence, plaintiffs argue, Dr. Lazzaro performed acts in furtherance of Home Line’s business in Pennsylvania, thus satisfying the Pennsylvania long arm statute and the minimum contacts with this forum needed under the due process requirements of the Constitution.

The Pennsylvania long arm statute, 42 Pa.C.S.A. 5322 provides, inter alia, that personal jurisdiction may be exercised over a person transacting any business in the Commonwealth, or based upon the most minimum contacts with the Commonwealth allowed under the Constitution of the United States.

A non-resident, non-consenting defendant is subject to a forum’s in person-am jurisdiction only if that defendant’s contacts with the forum are such that maintenance of the suit will not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 100 S.Ct. 559, 62 L.Ed.2d 490 (1980); International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945). Among the factors to be considered by the court in applying this standard are the burden on the defendant if forced to appear and defend, the plaintiff’s interest in obtaining convenient relief, and the forum’s interest in adjudicating the dispute. While World-Wide Volkswagen, Id., and Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186, 97 S.Ct. 2569, 53 L.Ed.2d 683 (1977) have spoken only in terms of those “minimum” contacts needed to confer jurisdiction over a defendant, the Third Circuit, per Judge Gibbons, has in dicta read International Shoe as establishing a “minimum contacts” analysis only with regard to claims arising out of forum-related activities, with the personal jurisdiction prerequisite for claims unrelated to the forum being the maintenance by the defendant of “ ‘continuous and substantial’ forum affiliations.” Schwilm v. Holbrook, 661 F.2d 12, 14 (3d Cir. 1981); Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinea v. Ins. Co. of North America, 651 F.2d 877, 889 (3d Cir. 1981) (Gibbons, J., dissenting). This interpretation would appear to be in essence a recognition that for due process to be afforded, a decreased nexus between the forum and the cause of action requires an increased connection between the forum and the defendant over whom jurisdiction is sought. In the case sub judice, the complained of actions of the doctor occurred in international waters and were completely unrelated to Pennsylvania, so that under the approach set forth in Schwilm v. Holbrook, the more exacting requirement of maintenance of continuous and substantial forum affiliations would have to be shown *103 before jurisdiction could be asserted over Dr. Lazzaro. No such showing is even remotely possible under the facts. In addition, it is clear to the court that even under a minimum contacts analysis, as refined by the Supreme Court in World-Wide Volkswagen and Shaffer v. Heitner, the defendant doctor’s contacts with this Commonwealth are insufficient to subject him to our jurisdiction. The only possible contact by the doctor with this forum is by virtue of his relationship with the defendant shipowner as ship’s surgeon, yet that is no contact here at all, since neither the doctor nor the ship were ever in Pennsylvania waters. Moreover, that the shipowner does business in this forum likewise does not lead to a conferral of personal jurisdiction on Dr. Lazzaro. The law is clear that to establish jurisdiction over an individual on the basis of “doing business” requires a showing not only that the individual did business in Pennsylvania, but that the business was done by him for himself and not for or on behalf of his corporation or employer. Spelling-Goldherg Productions v. Bodek & Rhodes, 452 F.Supp. 452, 454 (E.D.Pa.1978); Feld v. Tele-View, Inc., 422 F.Supp. 1100 (E.D.Pa.1976). Thus the long arm statute is inapplicable to the defendant doctor on the basis of either “doing business” or “minimum contacts.”

Ill

The claim against Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
536 F. Supp. 100, 1982 A.M.C. 1507, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13037, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/di-bonaventure-v-home-lines-inc-paed-1982.